First-timer Jackson gets rough welcome from Prairie

TACOMA -- As a reward for earning its first trip to the 4A state tournament, Jackson's girls basketball team drew a first-round game against one of the top programs in the state, Prairie of Vancouver.

Prairie, ranked No.1 in 4A by the P-I, didn't exactly roll out the welcome mat for its rookie opponents. The Falcons built a 10-point lead in the first quarter on the way to a 63-50 victory at the Tacoma Dome on Wednesday night.

Prairie (24-2) was led by Ashley Corral, who scored 16 points. There was some question as to how effective Corral would be after she sprained her right ankle at the district tournament last week.

She erased any doubt early, scoring six points and adding a couple of steals in the first half as Prairie took a 32-27 lead. In fact, Corral played through an injury to her left ankle. She took a hard fall in the second quarter after getting tangled up with a Jackson defender.

Corral may have been playing injured, but she wasn't about to let a little pain stop her.

"I know these girls want it. I'm not just playing for myself, I'm playing for all of them," she said. "I can't sit out. If I have to play hurt, I will."

Despite the loss, third-year Jackson coach Jeannie Thompson was proud of her team's effort in its first state game.

"To get a game like this under our belts and play hard, to challenge a high-caliber team like Prairie and give them a good run for their money definitely will help us out (today, in a loser-out game against Puyallup)," Thompson said. "And it says a lot about what we can do next year."